Termites are back. That is the short version of what is waiting in Grounded 2's Woodpile. Workers, Soldiers and the Termite King share the new area with O.G.R.R. variants, and Obsidian says familiar insects have new attacks and behaviour. Treating them exactly as you did before may be an expensive habit.
There is also a Centipede boss. It gets the big reveal, but the Potato Beetle may end up doing more for an ordinary evening in Brookhollow Park. The new Buggy fires a spread of projectiles ahead of it, has a healing ability, carries resources and contributes materials to blueprints.
Something for the journey home
That mix of jobs catches our attention. A combat mount is useful when a fight starts. A mount that also helps haul the result home has a reason to come along before anyone has picked a fight. For a group dividing its time between gathering and building, that sounds worth trying.
Back at base, Painting and the Splotcher let players colour their structures. The update also adds Bismuth and the Yoking Press for equipment upgrades. These are separate additions, rather than requirements to spend every session chasing the new boss.
Check the notes before reopening an old save
The quieter news is in Obsidian's release notes. On PC, the stated installation size drops from 37GB to 18GB. The engine moves to Unreal 5.7, and the fixes include blocked quests, multiplayer lag and stability problems. We haven't measured the smaller install or tested the affected saves; those are the developer's reported changes.
If your group stopped because a particular mission would not progress, look for that mission in the notes first. Knowing which problem was addressed is more useful than assuming a long list means everything is fixed.
Rot and Ruin is already available. The announcement was made on October 20; this report is a closer look a few days later. There is plenty in it for players who want another dangerous expedition. We're just as interested in whether the beetle makes the less glamorous work of an expedition a little less of a chore.